Victim of identity theft wrongfully accused and jailed

An unfortunate case of identity theft put a pregnant woman's baby in danger due to an oversight by local police, WXIA-TV Atlanta reports. The perpetrator used Mashara Williams' identity to buy a car, and was subsequently charged with multiple moving violations under the fraudulent identity. The culprit, Marielle Fortune, confessed to the crimes and Williams was initially cleared of any wrongdoing. However, Williams was then pulled over for issues with the tinting on her car windows, which is normally penalized with a ticket, but the police officer conducted a background check on Williams' license that revealed a warrant for her arrest. According to the news source, Williams hadn't showed up in court for a traffic violation, which warranted her arrest. But this violation wasn't even hers to begin with - it was Fortune's. Williams, 8 months pregnant, was sent to jail and celled with a bloodied woman. She feared her baby could get contaminated, WTSP 10 News explains. Authorities later dismissed the charges against Williams, concluding it was in fact Fortune who was to be arrested. Interestingly enough, Fortune has yet to spend a day in jail, while Williams was jailed as an innocent victim of identity theft.